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Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison, Inc.

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Summary

When the United States entered World War
One , Edison and his staff at West Orange responded
with fierce patriotism. Edison submitted more than forty plans
and inventions to the navy for their consideration during the war.
Many of his suggestions were very useful, although the navy was
careful not to let him know that. One of his major contributions
was the simple suggestion that submarine sinkings be plotted on
a map in order to discover where high-risk areas lay.

Edison was selected to head the Naval Consulting Board,
a link between the navy and the scientific civilian community,
in 1915. But while Edison was enthusiastic about the chance to
support his country through inventions, he disliked the stiff environment
of the navy especially when his ideas and suggestions were pigeonholed
or rejected by naval officers. He resigned from the board over
a fiasco involving a research laboratory. Edison originally suggested
the idea, believing a facility devoted to military research and
development would be invaluable to the war effort, but Edison ended
up clashing with the navy and the rest of the board over the location and
administration of the laboratory. In the end, the navy agreed to build
a laboratory but did not do so as Edison wished. He resigned from
the board in a huff in December 1920.

These days, public work was less important to Edison than spending
time with his family. For the first time ever he began to go home
for dinner, and he found in his wife, Mina Miller, a wonderful companion.
He primed his son, Charles Edison, to take over Thomas Edison,
Inc. Charles Edison did take over the company upon his father's
death, and he ran it efficiently until 1957, when it was sold to
McGraw Electric Company.

He also found a new friend in Henry Ford, the automobile
magnate. Ford had been an admirer of Edison for many years, before
he invented the Model T and became a wealthy, well-known industrialist
himself. In 1907, a year before the Model T came out on the market,
Ford had even sent Edison a request for a photograph. He claimed
he wanted to have photographs of "three of the greatest inventors
of this age" in his den at the factory. The two men met in 1896
and were good friends throughout the 1910s and 1920s. They even
took a series of gypsy car trips over the United States, providing
the press with delightful photo opportunities. They had much in common
in regards to business practices and the industry of invention.
Sadly, they also shared the same anti-Semitism.

When Thomas Edison died on October eighteen, 1931, he
left behind an incredible legacy. That legacy cannot be measured
simply in the 1,093 patents he had accumulated, or the millions
of dollars he earned (and spent!) in his lifetime. It is easier
to measure by walking into a room, flipping a switch, and noting
what has happened since Edison first hit upon his light bulb idea.

Analysis

Edison's involvement with the U.S. Navy was a brief reminder
of what he had detested as a child and as a young man: rigid structure and
authority. The Navy's stiff policies and bureaucracy hemmed Edison
in, and he revolted against it from the beginning. At first, his feelings
of patriotism kept him devoted to the project, but when it became
clear that his ideas and suggestions would not receive the same
value as they did in his own business, he left.

Charles Edison was a worthy successor to his father in
many ways. Though he did not have the same tirelessly creative
mind, he possessed a strong work ethic and good business sense.
These qualities kept Thomas Edison, Inc. afloat during the hard
days of the Great
Depression and the enormous changes in technology
after World
War Two . Later in his life, Charles Edison had a brief
career in government. Ironically, he was elected Secretary of the
Navy in 1940.

Edison's death also marked the end of an era in American
business. No longer was there the freedom for a lone inventor to
build an empire as Edison had done. Structural changes in the economy, as
well as the upheavals of the new century, had altered the fabric
of American business enterprise forever.